Premier League

LIVERPOOL, England — Colombian playmaker James Rodriguez scored his first Premier League goal and Dominic Calvert-Lewin bagged a hat-trick as Everton thrashed 10-man West Bromwich Albion 5-2 at Goodison Park on Saturday.

West Brom started brightly and opened the scoring through Grady Diangana, but when Calvert-Lewin equalised following an intervention from the Video Assistant Referee, Everton took control.

They scored five goals in 35 minutes as West Brom capitulated following a needless red card for defender Kieran Gibbs.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho has fired a broadside at the Premier League and English Football League (EFL) as his team prepare to play three times in a week on multiple fronts.

Spurs are having to negotiate the Europa League qualifying rounds by winning three matches to get into the group stage, with Premier League and League Cup matches also in the mix.

Liverpool have reached an agreement to sign Spanish midfielder Thiago Alcântara from Bayern Munich, the German club's CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said on Thursday.

British media reported the deal will cost the Premier League champions around $25.81 million with $6.5 million in add-ons. Thiago will leave the German giants a year before his contract is set to expire and is expected to sign a four-year deal with the Anfield club.

Timo Werner said on Wednesday that he was in discussions with Liverpool over a close season transfer but eventually chose Chelsea as they were the perfect fit for his game while manager Frank Lampard also played a key role in making the decision.

Chelsea signed the German striker, 24, in a reported 50 million euros ($59.20 million) deal in June as the London club looked to rebuild their squad ahead of the new season.

Manchester United women's captain Katie Zelem has been withdrawn from England's training camp after testing positive for COVID-19, the FA said on Wednesday.

Zelem, 24, was named in coach Phil Neville's 30-player squad last week for the Lionesses' training camp at St George's Park.

The FA and the club said the midfielder will now self-isolate for 10 days as per the health protocol.

Tottenham Hotspur are in talks with Real Madrid to re-sign winger Gareth Bale, his agent said on Tuesday, as the Wales international looks to end his troubled spell at the Spanish club.

Bale made over 200 appearances for Premier League Spurs between 2007 and 2013, scoring 56 goals with 58 assists before his then world record move to Real for 100 million euros ($118.46 million).

The 2020-21 Premier League season began this past weekend with eight fixtures and 16 clubs in action. When the dust had settled, the table showed Arsenal and Leicester City leading the way after vanquishing the newly promoted duo of Fulham and West Brom.

There isn’t much use for Premier League Power Rankings after about six or seven weeks of the season — the table doesn’t lie — but we still want to get in on the action with an exercise that’ll include vastly differing metrics from week-to-week.